Last apparition, Saturn’s face was well banded, with the North Polar Region taking on the appearance of a hexagon. Amateur astronomers were able to capture the North Polar Hexagon (within which resided a very small dark cap) on several instances. By this year’s opposition, however, the hexagon will likely recede from view. Overall, the yellow Equatorial Zone appeared brighter and more intensely colored to the north, while the dusky Equatorial Band was split on occasion. In some observations, the bright North North Temperate Zone (just south of the North Polar Region) persisted into November before solar conjunction.
This year, observers should also be on the alert for pronounced white-spot activity. White spots, which can vary dramatically in size and intensity, are the result of powerful atmospheric storms hurling water and other molecules high into Saturn’s atmosphere, where they freeze out to form white clouds. Two bright white spots detected in the North North Temperate Zone may have caused the zone to temporarily increase in brightness last apparition, and such activity appears to be ongoing early this time too. Several intriguing smaller white spots were also detected at varying latitudes last year, including one in the North Equatorial Belt, as well as a prolonged white spot and plume activity in the Equatorial Zone. Meanwhile, this year, as of early May, some low-contrast white spot activity has been imaged in the planet’s North Tropical Belt.